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Israeli troops raid Gaza rocket launching site

After five days of continuous fighting, Israel has widened its air assault against Hamas as the Palestinians say their death toll rose to over 125 on Saturday. (July 12)
AP

Mariam Hamed, Special for USA TODAY
5:16 a.m. EDT July 13, 2014

Israelis stand on a hill at the Israeli town of Sderot, overlooking the Gaza Strip, as they watch smoke rising following an Israeli strike on Gaza, Saturday, July 12, 2014.(Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis, AP)

GAZA CITY — The Israeli military announced that four soldiers had been lightly wounded during a brief incursion to destroy a rocket launching site in northern Gaza.

It is the first time that Israeli ground troops are known to have entered Gaza in the current offensive. But the operation was carried out by special forces and did not appear to be the beginning of a broad ground offensive.

Earlier, as international calls for a cease-fire ramped up, Israel military warned residents of northern Gaza to evacuate "for their own safety."

In a statement Saturday, the Israeli military said it would send messages to northern Gaza residents overnight to leave their homes as Israel planned to hit the area with heavy force in the next 24 hours, according to Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz, chief military spokesman.

"We are going to attack there with great force in the next 24 hours due to a very large concentration of Hamas efforts in that area," he said.

On Sunday, Palestinians with foreign passports began leaving Gaza through the Erez border crossing. Israel, which is cooperating in the evacuation, says 800 Palestinians living in Gaza have passports from countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

U.S. citizen Ahmed Mohana said he had mixed feelings about leaving friends and family behind in the troubled Gaza Strip.

"It is very hard, it is very tough," he said. "We are leaving our family, our relatives and brothers and sisters in this horrible situation —we have to do what we have to do."

In the Gaza Strip, 15 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike near a mosque as residents were ending evening prayers, said Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health Saturday. The strike marks the single deadliest airstrike in the five-day offensive that has left 156 dead and another 1,060 injured, according to al-Qidra.

Hamas continued to fire rockets and mortars across its borders at Israel, promising to bombard Tel Aviv with rockets starting at 9 p.m. Saturday night in the hopes of overwhelming the U.S.-funded missile defense system known as "Iron Dome."

Shortly after 9, several defiant Tel Aviv residents sang "We are believers, children of believers, but there is no one to rely on but God" as they watched the defense system destroy a rocket.

Late Saturday, the Israeli military also responded with artillery fire toward the source of two rockets fired from Lebanon that it said caused no injuries or damage.

Palestinians walk past the ruins of the Al-Tawfeeq mosque after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on July 12, 2014.(Photo: Hatem Moussa, AP)

The developments come as the U.N. Security Council in New York on Saturday called for a cease-fire and the resumption of negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials in its first response to the conflict. A statement approved by all 15 members of the council expressed "serious concern regarding the crisis related to Gaza and the protection and welfare of civilians on both sides."

Earlier, two disabled women were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a home for disabled people in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, al-Qidra said. In southern Gaza, bombs pounded the Islamic National Bank headquarters in Khan Younis, while in Gaza City, three Palestinian fighters were killed. Four were killed at the Martyr Anwar Aziz Square in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military released an aerial photo of the al-Farouq mosque it said it hit in northern Gaza on Saturday morning, claiming Hamas hid rockets in it right next to another religious site and civilian homes.

"Hamas terrorists systematically exploit and choose to put Palestinians in Gaza in harm's way and continue to locate their positions among civilian areas and mosques, proving once more their disregard for human life and holy sites," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.

Hamas said Israel hit two mosques in its operation Saturday morning. The competing claims could not be immediately reconciled, but the militant group said it hopes the attack galvanizes support in the Muslim world.

"The bombing of two mosques in Gaza overnight shows how barbaric this enemy is and how much is it hostile to Islam," said Husam Badran, a Hamas spokesman in Doha, Qatar. "This terrorism gives us the right to broaden our response to deter this occupier."

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for an "urgent, concerted international action to secure a cease-fire," adding he would be discussing the matter with American, French and German counterparts Monday.

Despite such pressures, Israel has amassed ground troops along the Gaza border and Israeli officials say they will continue the offensive until Hamas and its affiliates stop firing rockets at Israel.

On Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon readied his country for several more days of fighting.

"We have accumulated achievements as far as the price Hamas is paying and we are continuing to destroy significant targets of it and other terror organizations," Yaalon said after a meeting with top security officials. "We will continue to punish it until quiet and security returns to southern Israel and the rest of the country."

Hamas has fired more than 600 rockets in the past week, officials with the militant group said.

In the West Bank on Saturday, one rocket fired from Gaza landed in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, the traditional place of Jesus' birth, and another in Hebron, where Hamas has a stronghold.

Because Palestinian cities do not have air raid sirens, Hebron residents were reportedly monitoring the sirens of the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba in order to be alerted to incoming rockets.

Israel has reported no casualties as the Iron Dome has intercepted more than 130 Palestinian rockets.

The Israeli operation, which follows the murders of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank and the killing of a Palestinian teenager last month, appears more aggressive than the last outbreak of hostilities in November 2012, when an estimated 133 Palestinians were killed.

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a cease-fire on Aug. 26 in Gaza City. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire proposal to end seven weeks of fighting between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, European Pressphoto Agency)

A worker removes debris from the Cohen family bedroom after a missile fired by militants in the Gaza Strip made a direct hit in their home in Ashkelon, Israel. (Photo: Abir Sultan, European Pressphoto Agency)

A Palestinian boy walks across the rubble of a house belonging to the al-Dakhani family after an Israeli airstrike on the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. Two people were wounded in the attack. (Photo: Eyad Baba, AP)

A man looks out the window of a damaged classroom after a rocket, fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, landed in the courtyard of a kindergarten in Ashdod, Israel. (Photo: Jack Guez, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian man sweeps the floor of his home that was damaged after a mosque across the street was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian woman watches from a hole in a home belonging to Hamas financial official Mohammed al-Ghul after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. One of several targeted airstrikes by Israeli forces killed Al-Ghul in his vehicle. (Photo: Mohammed Abed, AFP/Getty Images)

Relatives and close family friends of Daniel Turgeman touch his coffin during the boy's funeral on Aug. 24 in Yevul, Israel. Turgeman, 4, was killed in a mortar attack fired by Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip on Aug. 22. (Photo: Jim Hollander, European Pressphoto Agency)

An Israeli firefighter extinguishes a fire after rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip hit a field near the southern Israeli city of Sderot. (Photo: Menahem Kahana, AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinians carry the body of the wife of Mohammed Deif, Israel's most-wanted man, at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. According to media reports, Deif's wife and son were killed Aug. 20 in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Israel holds Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, accountable for directing the Gaza conflict from underground. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, European Pressphoto Agency)

Israeli soldiers in an undisclosed southern Israeli location take cover inside a cement pipe near the border with the Gaza Strip as a 'red alert' sounds, signaling that Palestinian militants have fired a rocket toward the area. The Israeli army reported that Palestinians shot about 180 rockets and mortars since the collapse of the cease-fire, with scores of Israeli strikes inside the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Avi Roccah, European Pressphoto Agency)

Palestinians grieve over the death of Widad Mustafa Deif, 27, and her 8-month-old son, Ali Mohammed Deif, during their funeral in Jabaliya refugee camp. They were killed by an Israeli strike Aug. 20. (Photo: Khalil Hamra, AP)

A Palestinian boy spots two Israeli drones in the late afternoon Aug. 19. Palestinians fled their homes in neighborhoods of eastern Gaza City carrying bags of clothes, pillows and mattresses after renewed Israeli airstrikes, witnesses said. Nine days of relative quiet in the skies over Gaza came to an abrupt halt when rockets struck Israel just hours before the truce was to expire at midnight local time. Israel immediately ordered a military response, with warplanes striking targets across the coastal strip. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip rises into the night sky. More than 50 rockets were fired toward Israeli civilian centers from Gaza on Aug. 19, shattering the 24-hour cease-fire, and Israel responded with multiple air force attacks on Gaza, with deaths and many casualties reported. (Photo: Avi Roccah, European Pressphoto Agency)

Palestinian rescuers clear the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. The Israeli airstrike killed a young girl and a woman, wounding 16 other people. (Photo: Mohammed Abed, AFP/Getty Images)

An Egyptian soldier stands guard on the Egyptian side of the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Aug. 13, overlooking the damage in Rafah caused by a month of fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas militants. (Photo: Said Khatib, AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Zakariah al-Aqrah, 21, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Qabalan. The Israeli military said it killed al-Aqrah early Monday morning after he opened fire on an Israeli force that had come to arrest him in connection with shootings targeting Israeli soldiers two weeks ago. (Photo: Majdi Mohammed, AP)

A Palestinian man standing in a crowd of onlookers reacts to watching a soap factory go up in flames moments after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Aug, 10. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

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In Gaza, residents expressed fear over the strikes that have paralyzed life on the Strip.

"It's been days of suffering for the injured and the psychological trauma will linger on," said Mohamed Agwa, 33, of Alborayg in central Gaza. "I heard the screams of children and parents trying to console them while they themselves are terrified and not knowing what was still coming. My heart breaks but that doesn't do any good for those suffering. I feel hopeless."

Anger also appeared to be growing in the region, mainly at the lack of international response to the conflict.

"This morning I am tired, and my anger is threatening to choke me because of so many deaths," said Rawan Alagramy, 55, of Bet Lahiya. "I can't sleep."

"The people of Gaza and the West Bank have as much right as the rest to peace and justice, but the world is silent."